French Championnat National football club Red Star has seen its ambitious plans for the complete redevelopment of its Stade Bauer into an ‘English-style’ stadium officially given the green light.
Red Star, France’s third oldest professional football club, was one of the founding members of Ligue 1. It has spent 19 seasons in France’s top division, but last played at the highest level in 1974-75. The redevelopment of Stade Bauer is part of long-term plans to return to the top flight, and has been the subject of much debate in recent years.
The project has now been signed off by its stakeholders following a public meeting in the Parisian commune of Saint-Ouen earlier this week. A year after the launch of public consultation and continuous work between the club, Town Hall of Saint-Ouen, developer Réalités and Collectif Red Star Bauer, Red Star said some changes have made to the project initially presented in July.
The redevelopment will seek to preserve the architecture of a stadium that first opened in 1909, while bringing it up to modern-day standards. Stakeholders have taken inspiration from English football stadia, with the new 10,000-capacity Stade Bauer set to have its stands close to the pitch in an effort to produce an intimate atmosphere.
The project will also have a strong green element, with a 500m² nature garden set to complement the 1,500m² of green roofs and 450m² of garden terraces. The project also includes the development of Bauer Box, a mixed-use venture that will include offices and collaborative workspaces, shops and health services.
The timeline for the project will see work start on the South Stand from next season, with Red Star stating it will receive a “specific acoustic treatment”. The East Stand will be next, delivered in August 2023, when work on the West Stand begins, to be completed in January 2025. Bauer Box and the North Stand will be delivered in August 2025.
The official green light for the project comes shortly after it was confirmed that Stade Bauer will be used as a training site for football at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. It also marks the end of long-running efforts to address the future of the stadium.
In October 2020, Red Star formally abandoned plans for a new stadium to instead opt for a renovation along with partner Réalités. The previous June, Réalités won a contract to build a new multi-purpose stadium that would serve as Red Star’s home, but then-Mayor William Delannoy announced in November 2019 that the land earmarked for the project would not be sold.
Following approval of the project, Patrice Haddad, president of Red Star, said: “This is the culmination of work started more than 10 years ago, materialising in recent months in collaboration with Réalités, the Town Hall of Saint-Ouen and Collectif Red Star Bauer, to find a permanent solution to the Bauer question.
“Today, the project is launched and is unanimous. It’s a satisfaction, especially since we have the guarantee of being able to continue at Bauer throughout the work phase. This new stadium will allow us to continue to develop and grow, while remaining a place accessible to all. The inclusion of Stade Bauer as an Olympic site for the Paris 2024 Games is great news for all fans of Red Star and this stadium.”
Karim Bouamrane, Mayor of Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine and Vice-President of the Department of Seine-Saint-Denis, added: “We have gone from a stadium on the brink of outright destruction in 2016 to a stadium that is Olympic.
“It is the result of fine work and permanent consultation with the actors of the project and on the ground with the inhabitants. We surveyed the population in November 2020 and based on their suggestions… Stade Bauer results from a unanimous consensus. It retains its name to become a living space that meets our environmental, attractiveness and vitality requirements for this district near the Puces.”
Image: Red Star FC
